Summer 2025 classroom upgrades: what faculty should expect

By Emily Duran
IT Communication Intern

Refreshed teaching station touch panels and direct USB-C presenting capabilities are coming to all of the spaces listed below, as well as the following upgrades:

• New teaching station with a quieter cooling system and large working surface

• New teaching station with a quieter cooling system and large working surface
  
• Removal of old cart and monitor
• New, larger whiteboard

• Upgraded classroom capture system from Epiphan for use with Panopto
  
• Ceiling speakers
• Second monitors
• Adjustable height teaching stations

• Second monitors
  
• Adjustable height teaching stations

• Second monitors
• Adjustable height teaching stations
• Ceiling speakers and microphones

Large format projectors will also be replaced in the following lecture halls: Clemens Hall 120, Davis Hall 101, Diefendorf Hall 146, 147, and 148, Farber Hall 150, Knox Hall 20, 110, 104, and 109, Norton Hall 190, NSC 210 and 220, and Wende Hall 114.

Existing equipment will be replaced in classrooms if it has reached the end of its service life. Some of this equipment includes Crestron control processors and touch panels, Netgear network switches, Sony projectors, classroom capture systems, video cameras, document cameras, and DSPs (Digital Signal Processors/audio mixers). 

All of this work is set to be completed by the start of the Fall 2025 semester and should not interfere with summer events. 

These classrooms were last fully upgraded in 2014, with updates and additions throughout the years. This project will fully bring these spaces to current UB classroom standards, making these learning environments more reliable and cohesive for faculty and students. 

Adam Pellittieri, Audio Visual Systems Engineer with UBIT Customer Service explains, “This lets us ...rein in some of those things that have been added on over time and make everything a little bit more cohesive and coherent. As we upgrade these rooms, everything is going to feel standard across the whole campus.” 

The changes will promote easier hybrid conference-style teaching in these spaces, especially with the addition of a second monitor. With these, instructors now have the option to use presentation mode on PowerPoint when giving lectures. They also have the ability to more effectively interact with and monitor online students by keeping the student tab open at all times.

Faculty should expect to find the available classroom resources mostly unchanged, but consolidated.

“We really don't want instructors to notice that there was a big change. We want to give them some better benefits... We really haven't changed the technology. We just improved the infrastructure slightly,” says Steve Crane, Classroom Systems Engineer with UBIT Customer Service.

One change to be aware of: Lightning adapters will slowly be phased out of the provided adapters. To facilitate presentations, the Bring Your Own Device Adapter Rings will no longer be used. Instead, device-agnostic HDMI and USB-C connection cables will be provided, providing an easier interface for instructors and more modern connection options. Faculty should prepare to bring their own adapters if needed or use the classroom phone to call UBIT Help Center. 

The UBIT Help Center is available to assist faculty and staff. Classroom Technology Support is also available for classroom help and support.